Day 6: A meal too late

Lunch went well, just ham rolls again, of which they ate several each, except four-year-old boy who is starting to rebel slightly.  He announced he didn't like the ham, so I replaced it with a different one, then he said he didn't like butter, so I gave him a plain roll.  Then he announced he actually wasn't hungry at all and went and sat down on the sofa to watch 'Cat in a hat'.  Personality-wise he's always been closer to nine-year-old girl and this is starting to become pretty apparent.

For dinner I decided to serve Jamie Olivers roast beef with vegetables (not literally, that would be hugely inconvenient and I'm not sure how he'd feel about it either) which included pumpkin, whole garlic cloves, baby carrots, dried apricots (which burned in the oven (the apricots that is)...my bad idea, not Jamie's) and fresh parsley, drizzled with olive oil.  In addition there were roasted potatoes and cauliflower.

I'd run out of gravy so had to improvise with vegetarian gravy and an oxo cube (two ingredients which surely were never intended to be combined).

The problem with the meal was that I didn't get in from the dentist until 7pm meaning that dinner wasn't ready until 8.30 which was problematic since the children should be at least half way to bed at that stage.

Six-year-old boy, normally the most experimental of the lot, was too tired to eat very much and left most of his food behind him.  Unusually, nine-year-old girl made the biggest effort, gagging as she tasted the cauliflower, but taste it she did.

But I must explain the reasoning behind her sudden compliance:  Over dinner I introduced a little wager into the experiment, to make it more interesting and to provide the children with an incentive. Namely; league tables.

Each day they would be placed either first, second, third or fourth in two separate categories:  Willingness to try new things and volume consumed; and table manners.

The winner of the former category would profit to the tune of 200 dirhams after a month, the latter to the tune of 100 dirhams, with a smaller prize for second place also.  This had an immediate effect on nine-year-old girl, who instantly started to eat without complaint while trying to look 'posh' in order to secure both prizes (no doubt with the express intention of spending the entire prize on crap in Claire's)

Lessons learned today?  Competition is good (regardless of what they think in school) and dinner needs to be served before 7pm.

Day 6: Falling off the wagon....

OK, so I have a confession to make: Yesterday we collectively fell off the proverbial wagon.  You see, following the wonderous and magical family meal at the mall earlier, which practically left me in tears at the realisation that I was on the road to salvation, we were too full to think about eating anything substantial for dinner.  I had bought the children a tent in Carrefour so they were busy gathering sleeping bags and torches so that they could camp out for the whole night and had little or no interest in eating.  Then, at about 7pm somebody suggested ice-creams in the tent and I must admit I complied.  Then nine year old girl noticed a tube of Pringles in the cupboard (left over from the babysitter the night before) and so supper suddenly became Pringles and ice-cream. 

It was a small slip-up but since I was curled up with my laptop and a bottle of wine, I really couldn't bring myself to care enough to insist they ate a balanced meal before settling down for a hard nights camping outside the French doors.  By 9pm four-year-old boy and eight-year-old boy had had enough of nine-year old girl's bossiness and came inside again to watch American Idol (they're smart enough to know that my earlier insistance that they go to bed begins to diminish the further I get through the bottle of wine and by 10pm I'm actively insisting they cuddle up beside me on the sofa).

This morning the hardened campers arrived in hungry from their nights endeavours and settled down in front of sugar free puffed wheat (her) with honey (no argument at all) and oatmeal (him), which she remarked looked like babyfood resulting in his refusal to eat it (she has an annoying habit of telling them that what they're about to eat resembles something they hate meaning they won't touch it...it's a constant argument in the house).

Later I shall cook something substantial, following a recipe, but only after I've visited the dentist to have some fillings refilled (another kind legacy from  years of dieting and binging-- a mouth full of fillings!) Joy!